Improving the state’s roads will be a major goal of the 2019 legislative session, two state House leaders said Wednesday. But the path they take will almost certainly be rough and winding.

Speaking before the Association of County Commissions of Alabama’s legislative conference on Wednesday, House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville and Senate Majority Leader Greg Reed, R-Jasper, said the chambers would look at improving infrastructure, calling it critical to sustaining the state economy.

“I truly believe if we do not fix our infrastructure, if we do not fix our roads and bridges, our growth will come to a halt,” Ledbetter told roughly 250 county commissioners at Montgomery’s Renaissance Hotel on Wednesday afternoon.

The remarks reinforced signals from the Legislature that the state’s gas tax, the key source of money for road maintenance, will be a major focus when legislators convene in Montgomery in March. Legislators have not raised the 18-cent tax, a combination of three separate levies, since 1992. State and local officials say the current allocation can’t keep up with the current needs.

The speakers found a receptive audience. The ACCA in recent years sought an increase in the gas tax and is seeking some change to the tax this year. Tony Cherry, the president of the ACCA, called it the organization’s “top priority” before the remarks, and Montgomery County Commission chair Elton Dean said commissioners needed to band together to encourage the changes.

“We need to put more pressure than we’ve ever put,” he said.

But both Reed and Ledbetter were mum on specifics. Previous attempts to raise the tax failed in the face of opposition from anti-tax Republican legislators, and even those who support a tax increase may divide over the distribution of the money. 45 percent of the money from the tax goes to the state Department of Transportation; 55 percent goes to local governments. Cities get 10 percent of counties’ shares, and the League of Municipalities, which supports changes to the gas tax, wants new revenue given out in a way that increases cities' share.

Reed said infrastructure would be the “number one focus,” though he threw rural broadband and navigable waterways in the definition. He did not address the potential to raise the tax, though he spoke briefly about its distribution.

“For a guy that represents rural areas of Alabama, I’m going to have a keen focus on making sure not only large areas of state, but small areas get money allocated for repairs to roads, bridges, those kinds of things,” he said.

But both did hint about a willingness to tackle the issue.

“In years that are better, do we just give out a little extra money and everybody takes a breath, or do we take the opportunity to take the resources we have, the benefits we enjoy, to catapult Alabama and all 67 counties to a better place with more resources and more infrastructure in the future?” Reed asked.

Ledbetter also avoided specifics but urged commissioners who support changes to the tax to discuss it as a public safety issue, saying buses in his district sometimes added tens of thousands of miles a year driving around bridges in poor condition.

“This is not about the next election,” he said. “It’s about the next generation, and if you don’t believe in that, you don’t belong in this position.”

Both Reed and Ledbetter also said they expected the Legislature to address workforce development, a Republican priority. The two also said they expected some lottery legislation to get filed, though GOP leadership has sounded noncommittal about backing it.

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Montgomery County Commission chairman Elton Dean speaks to the Association of County Commissions of Alabama on December 5, 2018.(Photo: Brian Lyman/Advertiser)

Reed also said he expected the Legislature to look at a “state education plan” that he said would try to create a “theme” for all levels of education in the state, from kindergarten to college. He also expected work on the state’s prisons and ethics laws.

Ledbetter said he wanted to see something done about the state’s rural hospitals, many of which are operating in the red.

“You may have a rural hospital that no longer exists,” he said. “I think we’ve got to face that issue and fix it. Again, we’re working for the next generation, not the next election.”